Five Years On AU: The Series
by Eastonia
Summary: AU Pre-Flashpoint. Bruce was stuck in the time stream for 5 years, which is a very long time. See Dick, Damian and co. develop in that time and find out what happens beyond... Now: Damian defends his father and Dick gives him something passed from his.
1. Fathers and Dads

A/N:- A little plot bunny that stuck itself into my head and refused to get out. This is an AU where Bruce remains lost in time for a couple more years despite Dick's, Tim's and Alfred's best efforts. So, instead of Dick returning as Nightwing in a year, it takes another five years for it to happen. Set in the Pre-Flashpoint verse. Dick is ummm… I think canon Pre-Flashpoint would put him at about 28 when he took up the cowl, so he's 33. Damain is 15 in the beginning of the fic. Be warned, this consists mainly of rambling thoughts and musings on an what if. Sorry if it doesn't sound Damian-ish enough, he's not my favourite character although I did love the Dynamic Duo of Dick and Damian.

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><p><strong>Fathers and Dads<strong>

Everyone.

Everyone is crowding. Telling me I should be so happy, should be so grateful.

He's back.

And it only took him five years.

FIVE YEARS.

He's supposed to be my father; the human that is on par with the metas, the master strategist.

He wasn't supposed to get lost in time. And he certainly wasn't supposed to take five years coming back.

But he did.

He wasn't there through the nightmares. He wasn't there through the hurt. He wasn't there through puberty, or my first date for that matter.

Ha.

They are telling me now that I should be happy. I did after all choose my father's legacy over my mother. We rescued the other kid you know? The one mother taunted me with. Yeah, I'm a big brother now. Terry is an absolute brat. Makes me wonder how Dad put up with me.

The double barrelled surname seems to be a haunt in the sons of the Bat family: - Richard John Grayson-Wayne, Jason Peter Todd-Wayne, Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne and me; Damian Grayson-Wayne.

You heard me. Damian Grayson-Wayne.

It was year three. Just after we rescued Terrance, now Terrance Grayson-Wayne, just after Tim came back to Gotham, admitting defeat. After he agreed with us that while our father may be alive, he would have to make his way back on his own, without our help.

Dad realised it could be years before he truly returned. Talia challenged him for custodial rights for Terry and I, Dad fought back and won.

That day, he sat me down and told me what father told him all those years ago. That he didn't want to replace my father, and that it was perfectly fine if I wanted to stay at the place where we were. I told him I didn't mind, that I chose to embrace my father's legacy with all I had and if that was needed for me to stay, permanently, I chose that.

I'm lucky, I got to choose. Terry has only known Dad. He never knew our father. And maybe, Dad is all I knew too.

So Bruce Wayne is back.

I actually do not care. Because: Dad was there through the nightmares, He was there through the hurt. He was there through puberty and for my first date for that matter.

I'll need to get used to him again. I'll need to hold my breath waiting for that click where I can start seeing him as my father again. I need to…

Urgh. Need to catch my train of thought. Ravager is gushing about how happy I must be to get this opportunity, you know, the opportunity to work with my father again? Seriously Ravager, I do not care.

There are some talks about the bird that flies at night making a return. Chris Kent stepped down last year, Said he had a feeling something was going to happen, and that the clan will need that identity again.

Father wants to be Batman again. Dad is not fighting back, not like he did with Two-Face. Not like he did for me.

What happens to Robin then?

Tim has spent too much time on his own, being Red Robin, he would not want to return as father's partner.

Oh there's Clark.

"So, you must be happy, getting to work with your Dad again." He says.

"No. I was already working with my Dad. Bruce Wayne was my father. Dick Grayson is my Dad."

_The title of a father is one given at birth. The title of a Dad however… -Unknown._

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><p>AN:- Reviews please?


	2. The Old Stereotype

AN:- Takes place in my Batman AU headcanon. Introduces Mar'i, because I like her. But to tame all you other Dick/Whoever else (Seriously, Dick descended into man-ho-dom) shippers, no other Dick/Kori mentions will pop up other than this. Bear with me, this is unbeta-ed and thus rambly.

AN Pt2:- Gosh I'm undecisive. I took a look at my profile and ... well, its messy enough as it is. I'm sticking all these titles back under here k? Eastonia.

**Dick as Batman for 5 years AU (The very summarised general version)**

**Year 1:** Comic events occur, all except Bruce's return. Chris Kent steps up as the new Nightwing, brings in a Flamebird.

**Year 2:** Tim returns to Gotham. They've done everything possible to try and help Bruce. Bruce still stuck in time. He'd have to do this alone now.

**Year 3:** Beginning of Year 3, Dick realises that Bruce coming back could take a while, Talia does too. She challenges Dick for the rights to her sons. Dick fights back, custodial battle occurs. Dick wins custody on March 20th.

**Year 4:** Chris Kent receives a vision of Bruce returning and feels that Dick might want Nightwing back, he steps down. Shortly after, Flamebird steps down too. Damian turns 14.

**Year 5:** Towards the end of the 5th year of Dick as the Bat, Bruce returns. Shenanigans happen. Damian pouts over it. Damian turns 15 somewhere, 16 is looming ahead from him. A week after _Fathers and Dads, _Bruce finally meets Mar'i Anders.

This drabble is set a week after Bruce's return in Year 5. After clearing a whole lot up, he finally gets to meet his granddaughter.

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><p><strong>The Old Stereotype <strong>

**or **

**Dick Parallels Bruce A Wee Bit Too Closely**

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><p>Starfire looked over her crumbling planet. Warrior pride stopped her from saving them; saving herself from the doom. They would die before they surrendered. At least this way X'hal would find the realm still worthy in the afterlife. But, Mar'i. Mar'i deserved more. Mar'i deserved a chance at life. A chance at Earth.<p>

So she places her small, about to turn 12 Earth years, daughter into a pod and sends her to Earth as her planet collapses around her and prays that her father would find her.

3 months later Mar'i crashes on Earth.

2 years and a bit later, she's 14 and a few months and she finally meets her adoptive grandfather. The first thing he does is look at her, look at her Dad, look at her again and say

"Now how did this happen?"

Damian just tosses her a shrug that she knows is something he picked up from Dad (well, officially she's known as Mari Anders, Dick Grayson-Wayne's ward, which is really weird because Damian is legally his son but biologically not and she is biologically his daughter but legally not and when did her life get so complicated? Oh, right when she crash landed into her current best friend boy friend's arms).

Their Dad looks them over and sighs, Damian recognises the signs of the explanation and launches into his role of Dad's backup immediately.

"Well you see the Psions…"

Dad tries to explain the best he can, and where he can't Damian steps in using his own experience in an artificial womb to lend her story some credibility.

It's funny really.

Damian was a product of a tryst… well his conception and hers were different, but after that? They were nearly the same.

She, and he were gestated in an artificial womb with scientists watching their every move, right down to the genetic level.

Their genes were augmented naturally to perform at the peak of their species.

That's where their paths diverge slightly again. She was rescued at infanthood. He chose his father's legacy at 10. But in the years in between, from infanthood till near adolescence? They both were being groomed to take over a legacy of a person they never saw outside a monitor.

She never understood why her mother, the Queen of Tamaran insisted that she knew how to perform tricks without using her ability of flight. She never understood why she was so adamant that little Mar'i learnt how to speak, read and write English, proper English, not the banged up mess that her mother originally spoke when she reached Earth. Of course Terran culture was drilled into her as well, but then again, it helped that she didn't actually enjoy Tamaranian food – save for zorkaberry pie (which was nearly as good as Alfred's chocolate chip biscuits, X'hal, did anything beat that?) and didn't drink mustard.

Then she turned 9, and her mother began regaling her with stories of her father, praising his virtues sky high. The knowledge that she was not just being groomed to take over the throne, but also stand as the daughter, the one true heir of the Robin (Nightwing, Target, Renegade, Batman… what was her father going by?) legacy, was tremendous.

Damian, like-wise had been schooled since birth (out of that artificial womb they both knew too well) to take over both a throne (of sorts, the Head of the League of Assassins might as well be a crown) and a legacy (but where she was being groomed to be the perfect heir to the Robins, he was being the groomed to be the perfect heir to the Bat).

And their paths converged on the night Robin joined the Titans on what was supposed to be a quiet espionage mission.

They were both going through puberty (hey he was 13, she was 12), she wanted to not break tradition (of only one Tamaranian to do this… still, tradition is tradition) and well, she never got to try if she had her mother's language transference capacities.

So she kissed him.

Full on the mouth.

Turns out it was only a partial affair due to her then absentee father's genetic influence.

Damian and Dad finally stop talking. Grandfather has an eyebrow raised, and it seems to have turned into a competition of sorts that she couldn't understand.

Hey, just because she had half the genetic material of a Bat didn't automatically include her in the know of what was being said half the time.

Oh well, at least she could get a translator anytime she wished…

Which was now.

"Ow! Ree…"

"Okay Daims, tell me what they're saying."

"Why do you make me do this?"

"Because, Dick is your Dad and my biological father and I could get him to go overprotective on me, we live in the same apartment after all…"

"T-t. Fine."

"Good. Now explain."

"Okay, Dad's saying to Bruce that he didn't know about you until you were 12. Bruce is saying that why the heck wasn't he careful. Dad's saying he was, but there's something called science out there… oooh, the Psions are coming in now. Bruce… well you can tell, he looks surprised. Ahh. Tamaran's destruction. Your mum pulling a Jor-El. And…"

"Wha…"

Damian claps a hand over her mouth quickly. Turning a Bat-look over to her that clearly meant shoosh (well, she quietened down, but she figured that Bat-looks of any kind, including stares and glares didn't affect her. Maybe it was the Grayson DNA…).

"Listen, they're coming back over here, and I think you'd want to hear this."

They duck around a corner, and listen.

"Dick, when did you become me?"

"Excuse me?"

"You're the Batman, you took in a son, well 2 after the 'death' of their parent. You train one of the said sons as Robin and the other…"

"Terry."

"Terry is picking up skills he would need fast on the streets after he figured you and Damian were Batman and Robin, how did that happen by the way?"

"Terry was young when we rescued him. Little D is keeping an eye out for another one to pop up anytime. Then he saw Damian turning a trip at home when I finally got him to slide down those banisters…"

"You what?"

"Bruce. He didn't have much of a childhood before the Manor and you are going to begrude me this?"

"Fine."

"He connected it to a clip of Robin turning the same trip. Then superimposed robin's mask over Little D's face. 2 days later he confronted us and we began his training in, at the very least, forensics."

"How old is this kid?"

"6, coming up to 7 soon."

"Dick…"

"Look I don't see any harm in letting him play Sherlock Holmes. That's actually all he wants to do for now. Besides, Damian and I struck a deal with him. Wait until he's at least 9 to begin the physical training and he could help us on some cases from the computer."

"Now doesn't that sound eerily like a cycle of events repeating?"

"What? Taking in Damian after he's lost nearly everything and then taking in Terry…"

"Who's a budding detective. Now doesn't that sound a lot like yourself and Tim?"

Dick glared at him.

"Not to mention you have a child, that was raised to take on your legacy… which sounds a little like Damian…"

Dick continued to glare.

"Who spent her gestation period in an artificial womb, being augmented…"

Dick switched to a Bat-glare.

"… Okay, is that what I really look like when I do that?"

Dick shook his head in exasperation and called out

"Damian, Mar'i, come out from around that corner we know you've been there for the conversation"

Mar'i stepped out slightly sheepish. Damian followed and shot back at his two fathers

"Well, it's not like either one of you didn't do this before…"

"Well Bruce didn't. But I…"

The three males looked at each other in quasi-horror. Mar'i burst out laughing.

"Looks like that old curse of Alfred's has come true! You know the one about your offspring (adopted or otherwise) being just like you? Obviously I'm not included in this…"

She quickly flew away from the 3 Bat-glares aimed at her. Hey she might have the Grayson immunity, but 3 glares from 3 Bats? That was still enough to make her fidget.

_You know what they say; like father, like son – Boomer, Blink 182_

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><p>AN:- Reviews please?


	3. Mantles

A/N:- YES! TwinEnigma gave me the go ahead to borrow concepts. Which is great BTW, because really her pics on deviantart squirmed their way into my headcanon and refuse to let go. In fact, they've merged into a single being there so… I'm renaming this canon the Five Years On AU. SO! Recap!

**Dick as Batman for 5 years AU (AKA Five Years On AU)**

**Year 1:** Comic events occur, all except Bruce's return. Substitute that with Dick, Alfred, Damian and Tim knowing that he's caught in the time stream and trying to help him. Chris Kent steps up as the new Nightwing, brings in a Flamebird. Damian turns 11.

**Year 2:** Tim returns to Gotham. They've done everything possible to try and help Bruce. Bruce still stuck in time. He'd have to do this alone now. Towards the end of Year 2 Damian comes clean about the baby in the chamber, rescue mission staged. Terrance Wayne brought into the family. Damian turns 12.

**Year 3:** Beginning of Year 3, Dick realises that Bruce coming back could take a while, Talia does too. She challenges Dick for the rights to her sons. Damian turns 13. Dick fights back, custodial battle occurs. Dick wins custody on March 20th. Alien girl crashes onto Earth during the mission, she's about 12; her official name is Mar'i Anders.

**Year 4:** Chris Kent receives a vision of Bruce returning and feels that Dick might want Nightwing back, he steps down. Shortly after, Flamebird steps down too. Damian turns 14.

**Year 5:** Terry outs Damian and Dick. Towards the end of the 5th year of Dick as the Bat, Bruce returns. Shenanigans happen. Damian pouts over it in _Fathers and Dads_. Damian turns 15 somewhere. A week after the end of the 5th year, Bruce meets Mar'i in _The Old Stereotype_.

**Year 6: **Damian attempts to settle in as Robin to a Batman with a personality type similar to him. He doesn't mesh well with him. After a way too close encounter with Bane, Bruce bans Robins.

**Year 7:** -

**Year 8:** -

**Year 9:** Hostage situation at Terry's school, people die. Dick and Damian get wind of another Damian clone. Matthew Wayne enters the family as a 2 year old.

**Year 10:** Towards the end of the end of this year, Leslie Thompkins bans Bruce from being Batman on account of his weakening heart and busted knee. Dick becomes Batman… again…

This drabble takes place in the fifth year after Bruce's return.

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><p><strong>Mantles<strong>

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><p>"<em>I don't think I could be – the Batman…"- Dick Grayson, Young Justice (Disordered)<em>

Dick Grayson was thirty-eight and once again he was donning the cowl after a month of receiving it again. Nightwing hadn't been in operation for a month now, Batman still was. Damian was once again his Robin. For the moment, Bruce had after all banned the operation of Robins. But, Robins and Batmen were so interconnected with each other that even the criminal world felt the difference.

Robins held Batmen back.

Robins dealt with hostage situations better.

Robins were more personable.

Batmen weren't. Even when he was Batman, the shadow of the cowl inspired fear. And he wasn't going to change that. He knew his duty as the eldest son. He knew his duty as a father. It was only right that he was the one to return under the cowl.

He offered the cowl to Damian after Bruce passed it to him.

Damian said no.

Said he that he'd like his other costume back. Not Rook. The other "R", Robin.

Dick said he'd think about it.

Bruce just looked at him. Disapproving.

Dick had to remind him that he was now The Archiver, another source of information for the Super-Community. An analyser. Bruce's heart may be failing him and his knee may be busted beyond total repair, but his mind was still as keen and sharp as the day he started.

He was Batman, and Batman needed a Robin.

And Terrance Grayson-Wayne needed to embrace his legacy. He felt responsible for the deaths of the hostages at his school (despite being as helpless as the rest of them). He needed an outlet for atonement.

Terry would be his Robin. Damian was nineteen, coming up to twenty. He was an adult. He couldn't stay a sidekick forever. Lord knew he knew that.

Batman needed Robin.

Damian didn't. Not anymore.

Looked like tradition would continue, Batman would fire another Robin.

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><p>Damian waited by the car in green, yellow, black and red.<p>

Not that he didn't like the Nightbird (he helped install a camouflaging chameleon program on that), but the Batmobile had a certain charm about it.

And he didn't mind sitting by his Dad's left hand again.

Mar'i had been teasing him all day about his return to 'wonder-dom'. Honestly he didn't care.

The most recognised father-son team was back.

And there was his Dad, walking up to him with what looked like to be a suitcase in his hand.

"Damian – little D, we need to talk"

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><p>"You don't need to be Robin"<p>

"You don't want a Robin? Like Father? How could you?"

"I need a Robin."

"Then the matter is solved. T-t. Dad, really. I'm fine – "

"I'm not fine with it!"

"What? How –"

"– Listen to me!"

Damian quietened down.

"Little D, it's not that I don't want you to be my Robin. You were MY Robin, my true first Robin. Not Tim, You understand that? But you've grown, as a hero and as a man. You don't need to be Robin."

Terry stepped out into the light, mask off but in another rendition of a Robin suit.

"He does."

Damian recalled the slaughter at Terry's school. Recalled the nights both Dad and he rushed into Terry's room, Bruce standing awkwardly at the door.

Bruce (not Dad, never his Dad, couldn't be his Dad because Richard John Grayson-Wayne had become his Dad) worked this case then.

In the photographs of the crime scene, there was so much blood.

Blood that could've been prevented if a Robin was there, blood that no child (not him, not Terry and definitely not Matt), should have seen.

And in an instant, he unbuckled his yellow cape, took off his green gloves and boots and stripped himself of the red tunic. Removing his mask, he moved by his Dad (because he was not Drake, he would not react like Drake, no matter how much he wanted to) and knelt by his little brother.

"Hey there little T."

Blue eyes, so much like his own, but not completely (it was after all impossible to create an exact physical clone), looked up at him. He had been crying.

"Don't cry now… You've thought about this didn't you?"

"I don't need to do this Daims. You should be out there, with Dad. Bruce could use my help around here more…"

Damian looked over at their Dad, their father in everything but blood.

"Yeah, Bruce could. But Dad will need you more."

He stood.

"So I guess this is it."

A pause. A slight shuffle.

"I'll see myself out of the Cave."

"Wait."

A hand on his shoulder. Familiar. Paternal. Loving.

"Batman needs a Robin."

"Getting Alzheimer's in your old age Old Man? You've said it before."

"Little D… Let me finish."

"T-t. Fine."

"Batman needs a Robin… But he also needs someone out there that knows the people. Someone who he can trust with the life of the Clan. Someone who can be his backup when both Batman and Robin are captured."

A shift, the suitcase opens, blue against black. No cape. Escrima sticks.

"Batman needs a Robin. But he also needs a Nightwing."

Damian's eyes widened.

"You want me to…"

"I know you probably want to take on your own mantle after this, be your own man, but it would mean so much to me…"

"Yes."

"…if you would… Yes?"

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><p>Damian Grayson-Wayne is nineteen, nearly twenty. He watches Robin take down a small group of thugs, binding them up in Bat-rope before swinging back to the car where their Dad waits.<p>

He stands up and launches a jump line from his wingers. Flipping through the air once, twice, three times… and a half (Dad was still the only human to pull a quad, bummer) he let a smile grow on his face.

He was free.

Well he had been free before, when he chose Bruce's legacy over Ra's.

But he was out of the shadow of the Bat (one that he welcomed but he could see why Dad asked him to move on now).

He was Batman's most trusted soldier.

His eldest son.

After a month in remission, Nightwing, once again, flew over the streets of Gotham.

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><p>AN:- So what do you think? Review? And BTW it is impossible to create an exact, physical clone. There will always be something a little off. There have been cases (look it up) of a woman paying a small fortune to have her cat cloned when it died. Her cat was black. The clone was tortoiseshell... EVIDENCE.


	4. O Captain! My Captain!

A/N:- This is a sort of prequel to Five Years On: Fathers and Dads, The Old Stereotype and Mantles I recommend reading at least Fathers and Dads first to get what's happening, even though it happens in the future... Let us call this verse call this Earth-0.75, where the Reboot (darn that thing. I shall keep my opinions on how wrong it was) never happened and Bruce didn't return for five years. Earth-0.5 is the comic verse with no reboot in it… I may explore that one. The Impressions AU… Let us call that Earth-0.25, because Dick didn't become Robin but did become him due to Earth-0.5 bleeding over… So yeah, Earth-1 in the DCnU, go do something with yourself.

**Five Years On AU (The very summarised general version)**

**Year 1:** Comic events occur, all except Bruce's return. Substitute that with Dick, Alfred, Damian and Tim knowing that he's caught in the time stream and trying to help him. Chris Kent steps up as the new Nightwing, brings in a Flamebird. Damian turns 11.

**Year 2:** Tim returns to Gotham. They've done everything possible to try and help Bruce. Bruce still stuck in time. He'd have to do this alone now. Towards the end of Year 2 Damian comes clean about the baby in the chamber, rescue mission staged. Terrance Wayne brought into the family. Damian turns 12.

**Year 3:** Beginning of Year 3, Dick realises that Bruce coming back could take a while, Talia does too. She challenges Dick for the rights to her sons. Dick fights back, custodial battle occurs. Dick wins custody on March 20th. Mar'i Anders crashes on earth and joins the Titans.

**Year 4:** Chris Kent receives a vision of Bruce returning and feels that Dick might want Nightwing back, he steps down. Shortly after, Flamebird steps down too. Damian turns 14.

**Year 5:** Terry outs Damian and Dick. Towards the end of the 5th year of Dick as the Bat, Bruce returns. Shenanigans happen. Damian pouts over it in _Five Years On: Fathers and Dads_. Damian turns 15 somewhere. A week after the end of the 5th year, Bruce meets Mar'i in _Five Years On: The Old Stereotype_.

**Year 6: **Damian attempts to settle in as Robin to a Batman with a personality type similar to him. He doesn't mesh well with him. After a way too close encounter with Bane, Bruce bans Robins. Damian turns 16 somewhere…

**Year 7:** -

**Year 8:** -

**Year 9:** Terry is caught in a hostage situation in school. People die, he sinks into depression. Dick and Damian get wind of another Damian clone. Matthew Wayne enters the family as a 2 year old.

**Year 10:** Towards the end of the end of this year, Leslie Thompkins bans Bruce from being Batman on account of his weakening heart. Dick becomes Batman… again… in _Five Years On: Mantles_, Damian continues another legacy. Terry turns 11, Damian is almost 20.

This drabble takes place in Year 2, after Dick has a close call. Damian has nightmares.

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><p>"<em>Listen, I don't want to replace Bruce. I don't deserve to. But I am here for you, you hear that?"- Dick, Five Years On AU Year 3.<em>

**O Captain! My Captain!**

It was the Joker.

He had teamed up with the Scarecrow. Their catchphrase while they worked together was 'jokes so funny they'll scare you to death', pun intended.

The Bat had taken a crow bar to the neck for him. A split second too late at the wrong angle and it would have been a death or best case scenario? That would be paralysis for life.

As it was, Grayson had a nasty bruise at the hollow of where the neck met the shoulder. And if he hadn't been there; Robin – Damian Wayne's head, would have been bashed in. Just like Todd.

It was a moment of weakness. Unacceptable. Mother would have reamed him about it the moment they stepped back into the Bat-bunker. Grayson didn't. Just looked him over, making sure that he truly was mostly unharmed. Then carting him off to the shower Grayson reminded him to keep the gas mask on.

He took his gas mask off before he undressed himself and headed to the shower.

A quick rinse to wash away the dirt and grime of the streets and changed into his clothes to head to bed.

He should have kept that gas mask on, at least until after the shower.

He should have listened.

Outside the field Grayson was not his commander.

So he didn't. And he paid for it.

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><p>He's on a ship, in the middle of a storm. He doesn't know why and he doesn't question why, just knows that it's his duty to help to try and see that the ship reaches a safe harbour.<p>

He watches the Captain of the ship pass with some regret before the storm.

He watches the sea burial with some regret.

He watches as the right-hand, the first mate becomes the Captain.

The Captain is not like the last.

He reaches out more, depends more. He is less of a commander and more of a friend.

This of course makes it confusing. But slowly he gives his loyalty to this bond. And thus he gives his loyalty to the new Captain.

Then.

Dead.

His Captain lies dead on the deck.

His blood dripping over the keel.

And he, the cabin boy who got bumped up to the right-hand of the ship could do nothing but see the harbour break over the horizon, crawl over to the Captain and say with tears streaming down

"Grayson, wake up. Come on Grayson – Dick, wake up. Wake up. Wake up. DAD WAKE UP!"

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><p>He jolts forward into warms.<p>

Warm arms.

Arms that moments ago had been limp and cold.

"O Captain… My Captain… Dear father… Don't leave me too!"

"Ssh little D, we'll get Bruce back, we'll try, he's not dead remember? Ssh… Sssh…"

"NOT HIM! YOU!"

Dick starts back slightly.

Damian looks up as Dick's flesh begins to dissolve into his skeletal form.

He screams

"NO! DAD!"

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><p>The crazed look in his little brother's (or is it his son's – he can no longer tell) eye meant only one thing.<p>

Damian had inhaled the gas present on his clothes.

And he wouldn't stop screaming. If he couldn't stop screaming, he'll scream his throat bloody. There was only one thing to do.

The intravenous antidote.

Dick couldn't let go of his screaming brother, (son, does it matter any longer?) Damian was gripping him too tight. Alfred was in the bunker. He probably heard the scream and was prepping the cure now.

So Dick gathers his… child (sorry Bruce, you didn't want this to happen but it did and when you get back, you're stuck with it) into his arms and runs for the Bat-bunker.

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><p>A minute later the cure is injected into his… son's (he has accepted it now, there was no going back) arm and Damian (little D, my son) slowly calms down.<p>

The urge to comfort and the urge to discipline war within him, compassion and rage, a father must have both.

When he's sure the gas has worn off and the antidote has taken full effect, he looks at him. In typical Damian fashion, he has concealed ever having had the night terror.

Rage wins for the moment.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING! I TOLD YOU TO KEEP THAT MASK ON FOR A REASON!"

Damian flinches away. Compassion and love win again.

"I… I was so scared little D… I didn't want you to…"

He huddles around his child, recalling his own night terror so very long ago. Damian has him in a stranglehold, clinging tightly to him.

"Dad… Don't do that again… Don't leave me…"

"Bruce is coming back… I promise… It might take awhile but I promise our Dad will be back."

Was he not listening to him before? Grayson… Dick… Dad… Oh.

"I meant you. I saw you all broken and cold and bleeding on a ship. And I was calling for you to wake up…"

A sob. Push it down! No weaknesses allowed.

"It's okay… You can cry… You can cry…"

His mother wouldn't have ever allowed it. Condemned it as a sign of weakness again, and again and again.

"Superman cries."

"Superman is a ninny."

"Alfred cries."

"Alfred is Alfred."

"I cry…"

"I know you dolt."

"Bruce cried."

"He what?"

"Bruce was the one that got me to cry again after my parent's death. It was then Alfred came by and gave me the single piece of advice that Bruce and I never regretted. It is the strongest people who cry, because their tears are the rain that nourishes their soul and helps them to heal. Healing makes them stronger."

Opening the cocoon that he made around the boy, he swept a hand down his back, long gentle strokes over the transplant that betrayed his son.

"So… cry…"

He lets the torrents out. Everything he felt. Everything he bottled up for the last 11 years was pouring out; from the lack of attachment in his early years, to the discovery of a clone, his clone, his replacement.

And slowly, he felt himself coming back together; healing like his Dad said he would.

He had a home.

He had a family.

He had a Dad.

He was safe.

"Grayson…"

"Yeah little D?"

"We need to get my clone out of there… I won't let my little brother grow up like me."

* * *

><p>AN:- See you in the next instalment! Tell me what you think of this! Oh and if you want to see Damian calling Dick his Dad full time, wait for the next instalment or head on over to the other _Five Years On_ stories! Yes he's still calling Dick "Grayson" by the end of this because, although the two have come to terms with it, it's still a little awkward until Year 3.


	5. Into the Beyond

A/N:- Okay, I want to link this to Batman Beyond… great… how am I going to do this… wait I know! Cryogenic freezing! That'll have to do I suppose. Bear with me, my headcanon is expanding and rambly. Proof? The timeline under this authors note used to only go up to year 5. Now it's up to year 15… and it's still growing! I actually have the official fully detail timeline on here. Just, not yeah… you know?

**Five Years On AU (The very summarised general version)**

**Year 1:** Comic events occur, all except Bruce's return. Substitute that with Dick, Alfred, Damian and Tim knowing that he's caught in the time stream and trying to help him. Chris Kent steps up as the new Nightwing, brings in a Flamebird. Damian turns 11.

**Year 2: **Tim returns to Gotham. They've done everything possible to try and help Bruce. Bruce still stuck in time. He'd have to do this alone now. Towards the end of Year 2 Damian comes clean about the baby in the chamber and calls Dick "Dad" for the first time in _Five Years On: O Captain! My Captain!_, rescue mission staged. Terrance Wayne brought into the family. Damian turns 12.

**Year 3: **Beginning of Year 3, Dick realises that Bruce coming back could take a while, Talia does too. She challenges Dick for the rights to her sons. Dick fights back, custodial battle occurs. Dick wins custody on March 20th. Mar'i Anders crashes on earth and joins the Titans.

**Year 4: **Chris Kent receives a vision of Bruce returning and feels that Dick might want Nightwing back, he steps down. Shortly after, Flamebird steps down too. Damian turns 14.

**Year 5: **Terry outs Damian and Dick. Towards the end of the 5th year of Dick as the Bat, Bruce returns. Shenanigans happen. Damian pouts over it in _Five Years On: Fathers and Dads_. Damian turns 15 somewhere. A week after the end of the 5th year, Bruce meets Mar'i in _Five Years On: The Old Stereotype_.

**Year 6: **Damian attempts to settle in as Robin to a Batman with a personality type similar to him. He doesn't mesh well with him. After a way too close encounter with Bane, Bruce bans Robins. Damian turns 16 somewhere…

**Year 7: **-

**Year 8: **-

**Year 9: **Terry is caught in a hostage situation in school. People die, he sinks into depression. Dick and Damian get wind of another Damian clone. Matthew Wayne enters the family as a 2 year old.

**Year 10:** Towards the end of the end of this year, Leslie Thompkins bans Bruce from being Batman on account of his weakening heart. Dick becomes Batman… again… in _Five Years On: Mantles_, Damian continues another legacy. Terry turns 11, Damian is almost 20.

**Year 11:** -

**Year 12: **-

**Year 13: **Damian and Mar'i finally get married… There is much rejoicing.

**Year 14: **-

**Year 15: **Lex Luthor wins president… again… Terry Grayson-Wayne and Matt Wayne get hit with an amnesia ray that Luthor commissioned to erase and replace memories while forcing the body to shut down in a – no vigilante, no crime campaign. The Bat!Family work to save their own.

Takes place in Year 15 of this AU.

* * *

><p><strong>Into the Beyond<strong>

* * *

><p>"Live on CNN… there you have it folks! President Luthor is finally implementing his program to bring down our country's crime rate. Has he said during his campaign for re-election, last year the number of superheroes reached an all time high, and so did the crime rate. The president has concluded that since crime correlates with heroes, we will be putting a stop to vigilante activity. So how is this going to happen, Mr President?"<p>

"Well, CADMUS Laboratories have come up with a safe way of making these so called heroes normal citizens. It's a simple amnesia ray. Once fired the ray will erase and replace their memories. Effectively leaving their identities secure and giving these souls the chance to live a completely normal life."

"Amazing. So be on the watch for less capes turning up folks! The first place this ray shall hit will be the home of the famous Bat Clan, Gotham City."

* * *

><p>Bruce turned off the T.V. Dick and Damian looked worriedly at him. He sighed moving towards the Engine, the supercomputer that let him operate as the Archiver,<p>

"I'm going to hack into CADMUS, see if there is anything we can do about the ray, maybe mke a countermeasure against it…"

Dick nodded curtly, reaching for his league communicator

"I have to tell the League, put everyone on high alert…"

The two older men looked pointedly at Damian; he pulled out his own communicator

"Uh… I'll let the Titans know."

Dick smirked at him

"Five years as the official leader of the Titans and you still aren't used to it?"

"Well, it has been you for as long as I can remember…"

"Except for the past five years…"

"Hey!"

Bruce, Dick and Damian all knew what would have been said if Bruce was not in the room. Despite the ten years of his return, they knew who he thought his father was.

The three men got to work.

* * *

><p>"Justice League, this is Batman. I assume you have seen the news. Implement CODE: G1HN."<p>

"Titans, this is Nightwing follow SIT: G1HN procedures now!"

"Oh my…"

"Bruce..?"

"What is it?"

"He's planning to destroy us all…"

* * *

><p>A hologram of a generator is displayed on the Engine.<p>

"Doesn't look much like a ray…"

"This is Project: Hg."

"Mercury?"

"Makes sense, Mercury affects the mind, that's what he planning to do…"

"Mercury also poisons the body in some cases, death."

"Oh my… He doesn't just want to erase our memories does he? He is going to kill us all."

"And its slow acting, so no one will ever notice something is wrong."

"It's designed to work against metas mostly though…"

"Does this mean we have a better chance of taking it down?"

Glances at each other; then back at the projection, searching for something they might have missed. Dick's eyes flickered back to Bruce

"Dad, you gonna destroy the plans?"

"And the files. And any other mention they have of it anywhere."

"Discovered anything new?"

"No."

Damian looked up worriedly from his station at the computer.

"Matt and Terry are out there!"

* * *

><p>Matthew Wayne was lost.<p>

Fortunately though, Robin had found him and was taking him home.

* * *

><p>"There, the Boy Wonder."<p>

"The ray is supposed to be for metas only Luthor, we don't know what it does to regular humans."

"Do the Bats seem like regular humans to you? I don't think so."

"NO!"

* * *

><p>Terrance Grayson-Wayne – Robin, as he was known on the streets of Gotham and the Community, sprang upwards over the beam, little brother (though he doesn't actually know it) in his arms.<p>

His communicator beeped.

"'Ello."

"TERRY GET YOURSELF AND MATT OUT OF THERE!"

"'Wing, calm down. What?"

"Terry."

"What up Bat?"

"Get out of there. That ray would rewrite your memories, possibly kill you in the long term, we don't know. It was designed for metas."

"So Archiver has the crash sequence ready right?"

"Yeah, but you don't need too…"

"Great send it to one of my data-rangs. I'll take care of it from there."

* * *

><p>"So what does it do?"<p>

"It'll render the ray harmless. With CODE: G1HN and SIT: G1HN in place, Luthor will be able to assume we truly have died out."

* * *

><p>A second beam shot close to him. He gestured at his brother.<p>

"Boy!"

Wow, and Dad and Daims make having a secret identity look so easy.

"Stay behind me!"

A third wave, he isn't fast enough. The beam slams into Matt and him.

* * *

><p>"YOU HIT A CIVILLIAN!"<p>

"So? It won't do them harm right?"

"Mr President. The ray is for metas only! We've never tested it on an ordinary human before! If you recall I told you that five minutes ago!"

* * *

><p>A beep.<p>

Finally.

Robin launched the data-rang at the device.

* * *

><p>"No! Don't let that touch the beam! Quickly! Set the beam to worldwide. All superheroes die out tonight."<p>

"Done sir."

* * *

><p>"Robin to Command. They're none the wiser. We got hit though… ARGH!"<p>

Pain starts through his mind as he reaches the cave, Matt bundled in front of him knocked out and convulsing.

"No… I'm Terry. I'm Terry Grayson-Wayne. Legal son of Dick Grayson-Wayne. Legal grandson of Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne's biological son. I'm Terry…"

The world slips into darkness.

* * *

><p>"Get them in the chambers! Hurry!" cried Dick, injecting a sedative into Terry, throwing one over to Damian to use on Matt.<p>

"What are we going to do Dad? Terry… Matt…" Damian cradled his youngest brother in his arms.

Bruce appeared.

"Protocol: Beyond."

* * *

><p>"There's only one way to beat the poison of the beam," Bruce told his legal son and grand-son.<p>

"Outlive it."

Dick and Damian looked at him, confused.

"But you said…" Bruce interrupted Damian

"The substance in the beam is a combination of a rare isotope of Kryptonite and nanotechnology. In its natural state, it is possibly the only Kryptonite that will not affect Superman and is generally harmless to humans. Add in the nanotechnology and you have a substance that can take down metas while altering memories. We may be too late to preserve their memories, but it's not too late to save their lives. They just need to outlast it, let it break down into its harmless form. Its half life is around 15 years or so."

"So the cryo chambers?"

"Protocol: Beyond was created just in case one of us got something the present could not cure. I was to preserve us until such a cure is found."

"Let's just face it. My children will probably never know their uncles." Damian gazed into the chambers where his brothers slumbered in frozen sleep.

"Little D…"

Damian threw his arms around his Dad. Bruce found himself once again the awkward witness of Dick's and Damian's many father-son moments. And believe him, they had a lot.

"Bruce, come here, you want to grieve too, I know." Dick unwrapped one of his arms from around Damian. Bruce stepped into their embrace as they mourned together.

* * *

><p>Fourteen Years Later…<p>

Damian looked up. He retired from being Nightwing three years ago due to a problem. Frankly he was tired. The League of Assassins were still after him, thankfully, being Damian Grayson, Father of the Flying Graysons – Ryan John Grayson and Corriane Martha Grayson, threw them off the scent slightly.

So did working as an interviewer for Wayne Scholarships.

Dad was over in the P.R department, doing what he did best. Tim was in R and D. Bruce still sat on the Board. And the little known education department of Wayne Enterprises, was just the place for a man trying to hide but stay close to family.

He looked through the file of the next applicant.

"Terry McGinnis…"He read out loud.

He heard that last year Terry and Matt were released from their chambers. He hoped they were having a good life now. A couple of months ago would have been Terry's biological seventeenth birthday. Dad and he had been planning on letting him take a spin in the Bat-suit as a treat, just like he did on his twenty-first. On his sixteenth, not Terry's, his, he had gone out for the first time as Nightwing. Three years later and he was Nightwing.

Fourteen years later and Terry was…

"Excuse me Mr Grayson?"

Eyes, so much like his own, could only belong to a brother…

Tears welling up in his eyes, hide them otherwise he would think you are a sentimental idiot!

"My name is Terry McGinnis."

He can't help but think, 'You should have been a Grayson-Wayne'.

_I'll stand. With arms high and heart abandoned. - The Stand, Hillsong United_

* * *

><p>AN:- So that's the link to Batman Beyond! What do you think? :P Just a note though, the Bats are so worried about this ray because it causes death. And because that Luthor is willing to get rid of Superman at the cost of everyone else's (whom do not happen to be in a safe, nuclear chamber) life...

Eastonia


	6. Between Blood and Heart

**AN:- **So… I'm kinda curious myself about how exactly Dick adopted Damian and Terry… I'm going to ask you to bear with me again. I'm 17 and Pre-Med. NOT Pre-Law. Don't be surprised if I make mistakes. Besides… I'm gonna be focusing on emotions and thoughts not legal jargon. A note to make, whenever you see Grayson, Dick or Dad:- that's a reference to Dick. Father is Bruce. Damian is still trying to make sense of who Disk is to him in the beginning of this drabble. Be warned, this chapter started off meaning to be a short one, but the events surrounding the adoption grew and grew and grew until this monster was created... Still… Enjoy!

**Five Years On AU (The very summarised general version)**

**Year 1: **Comic events occur, all except Bruce's return. Substitute that with Dick, Alfred, Damian and Tim knowing that he's caught in the time stream and trying to help him. Chris Kent steps up as the new Nightwing, brings in a Flamebird. Damian turns 11

**Year 2:** Tim returns to Gotham. They've done everything possible to try and help Bruce. Bruce still stuck in time. He'd have to do this alone now. Towards the end of Year 2 Damian comes clean about the baby in the chamber and calls Dick "Dad" for the first time in _Five Years On: O Captain! My Captain!_, rescue mission staged. Terrance Wayne brought into the family. Damian turns 12.

**Year 5: **Terry outs Damian and Dick. Towards the end of the 5th year of Dick as the Bat, Bruce returns. Shenanigans happen. Damian pouts over it in _Five Years On: Fathers and Dads_. Damian turns 15 somewhere. A week after the end of the 5th year, Bruce meets Mar'i in _Five Years On: The Old Stereotype_.

**Year 10: **Towards the end of the end of this year, Leslie Thompkins bans Bruce from being Batman on account of his weakening heart. Dick becomes Batman… again… in _Five Years On: Mantles_, Damian continues another legacy. Terry turns 11, Damian is almost 20.

**Year 15:** Lex Luthor wins president… again… Terry Grayson-Wayne and Matt Wayne get hit with an amnesia ray that Luthor commissioned to erase and replace memories while forcing the body to shut down in a – no vigilante, no crime campaign. The Bat!Family work to save their own in _Five Years On: Into the Beyond_. Luthor gets thrown out of power when the crime rates remain high.

* * *

><p><strong>Between Blood and Heart<strong>

* * *

><p>"<em>Family is not defined by blood; parenthood does not need to be defined by blood. It does however need to be defined by heart." – Dick Grayson, Five Years On: Between Blood and Heart<em>

* * *

><p>Things had been going so well for the past month.<p>

They rescued his brother from a fate he wouldn't wish on anyone, little one and a half year old Terry would not need to kill to be accepted as a worthy son of a Ghul.

He would be a loved child of Wayne, no strings attached. Because, like Grayson – Dick – Dad, taught him, it was okay to cry and break. It was okay for him to fall to pieces occasionally, because Pennyworth – Alfred, and Dick… and sometimes Drake, were there to help him patch himself up again.

And the bonds they forged together – he finally was starting to understand – were stronger and more lasting than any that he could've made on his own.

And Terry – named Tallant by Talia, but really, he (Damian) was lucky enough to come away with a not so noticeable English name – would grow into what he was learning. What he found that could be a strength.

And Talia wanted to ruin it all.

The house of a Ghul thought Bruce would be back in a year, and so kept from taking their revenge straight away, beyond that of taunting Dad that he would never be good as Father. That the Detective could never be replaced.

Dad was the Batman now. The World's Greatest Detective. But he refused that title constantly. Grayson seemed to think that he couldn't live up to it, even deferred that title to Drake while Father was gone.

So Drake was able to focus better because he compartmentalised better. But whenever the Clan got together it was not Drake's several contingency plans (though they helped some), but Grayson's gut that got them out of bad situations (Nightwing had, after all, been listed as a potential meta based on his agility, but really Grayson intuition seemed like a power all on its own at times). Dad didn't seem to realise that Gotham was changing around them, and he – Dick Grayson, was turning out to be exactly the Batman the world needed.

He, Damian Wayne, wouldn't admit it, but Grayson filled Father's shoes admirably… Even if he was four inches shorter in stature. But then again, all that coffee and tea drinking from an early age probably stunted his growth. Dad's and Tim's (well, in the beginning it was probably not completely the fault of the Bat, apparently Drake grew so obsessed with the Dynamic Duo that he drank the stunting substance from an even earlier age)… He was probably next to go that way… Oh well, such was the position of the Robin's: follow in the Bat's legacy, break your bones a couple of dozen of times, drink coffee and stunt your growth (Dick was probably happy about not reaching his full potential height though, he was an acrobat first and foremost, being shorter meant that his style of fighting was easier than if he was taller).

But even if Dick filled Father's shoes admirably, Bruce Wayne still was missing and the League of Assassins was free to take their revenge.

* * *

><p>"You want what!" cried out Dick, chair skidding backwards from the force of him standing up. Sometime in the second year of Bruce going missing, the combination of the press and one Timothy Drake – the current head of R&amp;D – forced him to step up and take some responsibility in the other 'family business'. He might hate it, but the years of being the 'Wayne Heir' had finally caught up to him. He couldn't dodge anymore, not since the press started to stress that even though he used Grayson in a variety of things, his true legal name was Grayson-Wayne, emphasis on the Wayne portion of the surname.<p>

So sitting calmly in the office in which he now sometimes worked, Talia a Ghul repeated her statement.

"I'm taking the children back."

"Why?"

"I sent them…"

"You sent them? Damian maybe, yes, but Terry –"

"– Tallant."

"– Terry,"

Blue eyes narrowing, instinct surging through his veins. Tallant he may have been, but Terry he was now, even said so on the birth certificate that the Clan rustled up for their new little brother.

"Don't think we aren't in the process of forging a better heir."

Brown eyes narrowed back at him. Spitting out those words.

"Don't you even want to see how he turns out under us?"

"No. But the genetic information we have to gather once again is too troublesome. So I want them back."

"Even though you consider Damian tainted?"

"It is no matter. He is not fit to be the heir of a Ghul, but his training alone is enough to keep him as a foot soldier in our cause. Provided with the correct incentive of course…"

Gently tilting lips with the knowledge that she had won, the house of a Ghul had once again won.

"Good luck taking them back with the cover story."

A snarl, like a father wolf protecting his pups, baring teeth and the fires of protection, reminding her of the story she helped to cook up to explain why exactly Damian had gone to live with Bruce. A story that now extended to that of Tallant, the story was air tight, a Ghul had made sure of that, and though she wished to take what was hers back, she couldn't without destroying her Beloved's company and reputation.

They all knew that he was not dead; such was the benefit of being a part of similar 'communities'. They knew he was coming back. They just did not know… when.

Brown versus Blue. A challenge issued and received. They would fight in the arena they drew themselves in.

Simultaneously, they said,

"I'll see you in court."

* * *

><p>He hoped to be a worthy foe of the House of a Ghul.<p>

He didn't expect to be, maybe, it wasn't a certainty, forced back.

He didn't want to be forced back, not when he had just found his family, not when he started to belong.

And he couldn't do a thing. His biological mother and his adoptive brother were fighting it out in the courthouse over who got to keep him. And all he could do was sit in the pews with little Terry – his little brother, the one thing that he was near certain he couldn't completely lose – rock him back and forth and hope for the best.

* * *

><p>"…your Honour, if I may be frank?"<p>

"Go ahead Mr. Grayson-Wayne."

He was using his full legal name now. Not just as a reminder that he was attached to the Wayne legacy (because really, all this time he had been rebuffing the press about it). This time, he needed the power that the status brought; it was not about him any longer. It was about his two brothers (sons?) that needed a stable home, a family.

"Family is not defined by blood; parenthood does not need to be defined by blood. It does however need to be defined by heart. I love Damian and Terrance as my own, even though they are my brothers. And if you need any further proof. If you need any indication about where my heart is on that matter, I am willing to fill that missing paternal figure in their lives. Your Honour, if Damian is willing, Lord help me, I'd like to adopt them."

Stunned silence throughout the court.

"Our father, Bruce has been missing for just over two years. We have no clue where he is, or if he is alive for that matter. I refuse to let them return to the conditions that Ms. a Ghul described three years ago when she released Damian into Bruce's care."

* * *

><p>"Court adjourned."<p>

* * *

><p>Eyes wide in shock drifting from the woman who gave him life to the man who taught him life.<p>

The man he thought of as 'Dad' might really end up his Dad. And somewhere in his heart, a spark of hope grew.

* * *

><p>"Case dismissed."<p>

* * *

><p>The papers were in his hands. He stared down at them, then stared up at his eldest brother – maybe soon to be not just that; and watched as Richard John Grayson-Wayne started to fumble. His eyes stared awkwardly at the ground as he rubbed his neck sheepishly.<p>

"Listen, I don't want to replace Bruce. I don't deserve to. But I am here for you, you hear that? And that's why I'm doing this. This way, no one can take you away again legally. You don't need to think of me as…"

"Dad,"

Somehow, his Dad manages to simultaneously snap his head up while kneeling down to his level.

"You sure?"

A small twitch at the corners of his face was answering the growing grin on his elder brother's – in a few moments adopted father's face as the papers were signed.

"Yes."

"By the way, about your name, you could…"

He wanted to honour both men. He was still the first blood heir of Bruce Wayne, flesh of the flesh and all that… but Dick Grayson would always be the eldest son, their father's heart of heart and soul of soul, united by tragedy and purpose. Maybe, just maybe, he was the same for him, and he didn't mind at all. So he interrupted what Grayson was going to surely say about not feeling bad about remaining a Wayne.

"You are legally a Grayson-Wayne. There's no point in me being Wayne-Grayson-Wayne. Might as well just be a Grayson-Wayne too. T-t…"

* * *

><p>A few days later in school.<p>

"Grayson-Wayne?"

He smirked as the class turned to look at him.

"Present."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:-<strong> That took me a little by suprise too... Well, I hope I wrote them right given the circumstances. Thanks for reading! Please review!


	7. Moulting Feathers

**AN:- **Remember the big fight scene I mentioned in Mantles? Well, how exactly did Damian get the Robins out of business and become Nightwing's sidekick? If there is a tale you want to read but can't find, write it. Anyways, can you believe this is the seventh chapter of this drabble collection? I can't. It's surreal. My headcanon was supposed to quieten down after _Fathers and Dads_, get my misery about the reboot out of my system. But Dick decided to stick around in my head and he dragged Damian in and you know how Damian is… I'm trying out his POV again, the last time I did that was the first drabble, still might get him wrong. ANYWAYS… Enjoy!

**Five Years On AU (The very summarised general version)**

**Year 1: **Comic events occur, all except Bruce's return. Substitute that with Dick, Alfred, Damian and Tim knowing that he's caught in the time stream and trying to help him. Chris Kent steps up as the new Nightwing, brings in a Flamebird. Damian turns 11

**Year 2:** Tim returns to Gotham. They've done everything possible to try and help Bruce. Bruce still stuck in time. He'd have to do this alone now. Towards the end of Year 2 Damian comes clean about the baby in the chamber and calls Dick "Dad" for the first time in _Five Years On: O Captain! My Captain!_, rescue mission staged. Terrance Wayne brought into the family. Damian turns 12.

**Year 3:** Beginning of Year 3, Dick realises that Bruce coming back could take a while, Talia does too. She challenges Dick for the rights to her sons. Dick fights back, custodial battle occurs. Dick wins and Damian and Terry become Grayson-Wayne's in _Five Years On: Between Blood and Heart_

**Year 5: **Terry outs Damian and Dick. Towards the end of the 5th year of Dick as the Bat, Bruce returns. Shenanigans happen. Damian pouts over it in _Five Years On: Fathers and Dads_. Damian turns 15 somewhere. A week after the end of the 5th year, Bruce meets Mar'i in _Five Years On: The Old Stereotype_.

**Year 10: **Towards the end of the end of this year, Leslie Thompkins bans Bruce from being Batman on account of his weakening heart. Dick becomes Batman… again… in _Five Years On: Mantles_, Damian continues another legacy. Terry turns 11, Damian is almost 20.

**Year 15:** Lex Luthor wins president… again… Terry Grayson-Wayne and Matt Wayne get hit with an amnesia ray that Luthor commissioned to erase and replace memories while forcing the body to shut down in a – no vigilante, no crime campaign. The Bat!Family work to save their own in _Five Years On: Into the Beyond_. Luthor gets thrown out of power when the crime rates remain high.

* * *

><p><strong>Moulting Feathers<strong>

* * *

><p>"<em>No. Dad knows I can handle myself. He worries but that's why he watches my back. You may be my father, you may take Robin away from me. But I am NOT your son." – Damian Grayson-Wayne, Five Years On: Moulting Feathers<em>

* * *

><p>I remember an incident like this, around five years ago. But at that time I was just over twelve and I was much, much cockier and felt more entitled to things.<p>

Some things didn't really change though. Though Dad basically nurtured the heck out of me until I am what I am today. I can't be too bad now though. After all Mar'i wouldn't stay with me if I remain like that…

Right?

It could be the Grayson DNA though, it seems to be the only strain other than the Pennyworth line (and even he left before! Unlike Dad. Dad said the first time he took over as the Bat, he would've come running if only Bruce had asked) that can withstand the Wayne with untold patience.

If I'm not a Grayson by blood, well, I am glad that I am legally one. And that I am a Grayson through heart.

I used to dream of working with him you know? I even resented the others a little for having that opportunity, the one I never got.

I got used to working with Dad.

You know, I was afraid of this, a year ago I hoped that click would come soon enough.

That click never came at all.

Dad kept on telling me to give him a chance. T-t. Yeah, I've been trying to give him a chance. I've been giving him a chance for a whole year. I was right you know? Tim had flown the nest, a Robin he still was, but he had tasted flight.

He didn't want to stay in the shadow of the Bat.

Dad was okay with stepping into that shadow from time to time. But that's because Bruce was his Dad, and Bruce treated him like an equal. Drake, Jason, Steph and I? We're his colleagues.

The Dynamic Duo was the first father-son superhero – well, vigilante actually – team.

Actually, come to think of it, he was fine being in the shadow of the Bat too. But not this Bat. He was not okay with being in the shadow of this one.

But Dad understood. He had walked this road before. Bruce didn't. He didn't know how much it meant to me to wear a mantle I knew he once wore.

I know Dad says that I'm his son as long as I let him be. But it really means something – to me – my Dad trusts me enough to uphold his legacy.

Trusted me enough to know what I'm doing.

And he would've trusted me enough to… URGH!

So what happened? Bane caught me.

We took him down of course but Bruce went overboard. I can still remember the fight in the cave.

"See? This just proves you can't handle yourself. As my son, I'm doing this to protect you. You and Terry. No more Robins." He said in monotone. No emotion. No nothing. Just a stern 'obey me' ringing through his voice.

"No. Dad knows I can handle myself. He worries but that's why he watches my back. You may be my father, you may take Robin away from me. But I am NOT your son."

Well that was the tail end of it. I stormed out of the cave. Went back to the bunker. Talked it over with my Dad.

He understood. He always understands.

And that's why Nightwing is getting a partner.

I can hear the conversation over at the Crays.

* * *

><p>"You banned the Robin's Bruce?"<p>

"Yes."

"Well, what about Timmy then, you banning him too because of the Robin connotation?"

"No."

"Well then it's not fair to ban the Robins. You're letting me run around. I'm a former Robin. You gonna stop me then?"

"No."

"Bruce. Gotham needs a Robin as much as it needed a Bat."

"No."

"I can pull rights."

"CPS."

"You call them up, and you'll expose yourself. I agreed to let Damian and Terry try living with you, but it is not working out. Tell Alfred to pack their stuff at the Manor up, I'm bringing it back here."

"I'm their father."

"Well, I'm their Dad. Dad trumps father. Bruce I'm making a judgement call. We've got into many close calls the past five years when we worked together. They always worked out in the end. Expect Nightwing to have a partner soon."

"No."

"Bruce, it is not your choice. Damian is nearly sixteen. I'm letting him choose. Whether you like it or not, he is my son."

"He is."

* * *

><p>Alfred passed me a new suit on the day Terry and I moved out for good from the Manor. It had a white cape and hood. Silver spread here and there and a large black bird, wings unfurled, triumphant stretched across the chest.<p>

* * *

><p>A knock on my door. Mar'i…<p>

"So you've decided on a name yet Daims?"

"So far no good Ree."

"Hey. How about Rook?"

"Rook, the partner of Nightwing… Sounds good"

* * *

><p>I took off behind my Dad that night. I was back where I belonged.<p>

Right by my Dad's side.

For the first time in Gotham City. Rook took flight.


	8. To Stand Against The Dark

**AN:- **I mentioned that part of the reason Dick made Terry his second Robin was because of an incident in his school in _Mantles_. So what happened and what were the consequences? Well, actually this is an excuse for me to write about Daddy!Dick and BigBro!Damian. So where's Mar'i throughout this whole thing? Actually I am kind wondering myself… Anyway experimenting with switching between POVs here. Usually I write from the second person, so I decided to give third a go in some parts of this. Bear with me, I ramble.

**Five Years On AU (The very summarised general version)**

**Year 1: **Comic events occur, all except Bruce's return. Substitute that with Dick, Alfred, Damian and Tim knowing that he's caught in the time stream and trying to help him. Chris Kent steps up as the new Nightwing, brings in a Flamebird. Damian turns 11

**Year 2:** Tim returns to Gotham. They've done everything possible to try and help Bruce. Bruce still stuck in time. He'd have to do this alone now. Towards the end of Year 2 Damian comes clean about the baby in the chamber and calls Dick "Dad" for the first time in _Five Years On: O Captain! My Captain!_, rescue mission staged. Terrance Wayne brought into the family. Damian turns 12.

**Year 3:** Beginning of Year 3, Dick realises that Bruce coming back could take a while, Talia does too. She challenges Dick for the rights to her sons. Dick fights back, custodial battle occurs. Dick wins and Damian and Terry become Grayson-Wayne's in _Five Years On: Between Blood and Heart_

**Year 5: **Terry outs Damian and Dick. Towards the end of the 5th year of Dick as the Bat, Bruce returns. Shenanigans happen. Damian pouts over it in _Five Years On: Fathers and Dads_. Damian turns 15 somewhere. A week after the end of the 5th year, Bruce meets Mar'i in _Five Years On: The Old Stereotype_.

**Year 6: **After an encounter with Bane, Bruce over reacts and bans the operation of Robins in Gotham. Damian and Terry move back in with Dick permanently (they had been splitting time between the Manor and the Penthouse), and Nightwing gains a partner in Rook (Damian) in _Five Years On: Moulting Feathers_.

**Year 10: **Towards the end of the end of this year, Leslie Thompkins bans Bruce from being Batman on account of his weakening heart. Dick becomes Batman… again… in _Five Years On: Mantles_, Damian continues another legacy. Terry turns 11, Damian is almost 20.

**Year 15:** Lex Luthor wins president… again… Terry Grayson-Wayne and Matt Wayne get hit with an amnesia ray that Luthor commissioned to erase and replace memories while forcing the body to shut down in a – no vigilante, no crime campaign. The Bat!Family work to save their own in _Five Years On: Into the Beyond_. Luthor gets thrown out of power when the crime rates remain high.

* * *

><p>This drabble takes place 3 years after <em><span>Moulting Feathers<span>_. It is the 9th year of this AU. Dick is 37 (but looks younger – he ages way slowly), Damian is about to turn 18, Terry is 10, and Matt is 2 and a bit.

* * *

><p><strong>To Stand Against The Dark<strong>

* * *

><p>"<em>Bruce, with all due respect, we can't keep him from this any longer. But we can teach him how to stand against the dark." – Damian Grayson-Wayne, Five Years On: To Stand Against The Dark<em>

* * *

><p>Blood. And there was so much of it around him.<p>

Terry knew that he was kept alive for the sole reason that he was the legal son and the biological son of the two most powerful men in Gotham. Most of his classmates were not that lucky, hence the class room floor full of blood.

Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy had joined forces with Two-Face for some reason in an attempt to gain funding via hostage. Every kid was worth a certain value. Two-Face had broadcasted the prices on each child's head. If the amount wasn't reached by the end of the time limit they gave per child, they died.

And if Batman interfered in this situation, every child died.

Which was why he could see the police line surrounding the school, and the Batman trapped out there by the terms; he went in, everyone would die.

There was one tiny advantage Batman had in that situation. An operative on the inside. One Terrance Grayson-Wayne.

Fat load of difference it made.

Damian and Dad had been training him in forensics – detective work – since he was six and found out that they were the Dynamic Duo. Last year he was supposed to have started training in the physical side of the family business, that didn't come to pass since Dad was back in his old suit and Gramps, aka Bruce, banned Robins.

After all, this was still Gotham, Batman's city, and until someone else was under that cowl, Bruce's word was law.

Damian had been showing him basic self defence though, nothing much, in fact he wasn't even of much use here.

He bet the Bat was kicking himself mentally by now. One of his own was inside, and would have been of use. Problem was, he went so out of the way trying to keep him from the family business that he didn't even have the tech necessary on him to help.

And it didn't help that Nightwing and Rook were off-world on a mission with the Titans. So, yeah, the 'Wingcom that Damian and Dick designed for the use of their allies was of not much use, since Batman announced that he worked alone, he couldn't claim to have an inside source in a school in the form of an undercover Robin. Which he wasn't. Unfortunately.

And the number of his schoolmates that were alive dropped hour after hour.

* * *

><p>Blood. So much blood.<p>

And helplessness.

Blood on his hands that he could do nothing about to wash clean.

And they were falling out of his grasp in the rhythm of the shots of a gun. Two-Face laughing and Ivy and Harley watching on.

"You can't do anything. You can't do a thing. You have no training. No approval."

Then suddenly it was Cassandra.

Tim.

Bruce.

Alfred.

Matt.

Damian.

Dad…

"NOOO!"

* * *

><p>"TERRY!"<p>

Damian burst into the room in the Manor, followed closely by Dick, who was carrying Matt having grabbed him out of Bruce's arms. Bruce watched awkwardly from his position at the threshold of the door. You see, the Grayson-Wayne's had moved back in after they learnt of the attack on Terry's school. The Penthouse may be secure, but the Manor was even more so. Bruce and Dick were not letting the youngest members of the family out of their collective sight.

Terry was thrashing around, the blankets tangling around his feet as the night terror grew. Damian drew a chair up to his younger brother's bed and held out his arms as Dick dropped their youngest brother into them. Damian shushed him lightly, while Dick shook Terry by the shoulders, hard.

"C'mon son, wake up. We're all here. We're safe. You're safe."

Terry jolted into Dick arms snapping awake. Dick stroked his back comfortingly and said

"See? Damian's over there and so is Matt. Bruce is over by the door and Alfred is just downstairs, he's bringing some hot chocolate up okay? We're not going anywhere Terry, we're right here. Cassie is safe too, remember? She's in Hong Kong on business."

"She would be here too if she knew Little T. You know she would. Tim would too, he's on call with the Titans though." Damian continued.

Terry continued crying into Dick, the sobs growing quieter. Damian sighed, stood up and walked over to Bruce where he handed the only non-hyphenated Wayne over. Bruce accepted the toddler as Damian turned back over to Dick and Terry.

Dick silently opened his arms.

* * *

><p>"Well. This seems awkwardly familiar…"<p>

Damian remarked as he wrapped an arm around his younger brother, wondering once again how Dad could tell exactly what they needed to get over nightmares as they were engulfed by their Dad's embrace. He may be growing to the same height as him (yup, the curse of the Robin's came true, Wayne genetics may have him grow to Bruce's height but after nearly eight years of religious caffeine consumption and broken leg bones, he was pretty sure he was going to be stuck at 5 feet 10) but it still was the securest place he could find, ever.

And it really was familiar, the only differences in the situation were that Bruce was back and he was now one of the comfort-tors. Not the comfort-tee.

The smell of the hot chocolate wafted into the air as Alfred placed cups on the bedside. His Dad looked ruefully at him, then pointedly at Bruce before helping Terry to down his drink and tuck his youngest son, once again, in.

He read the message in his Dad's eyes easily and reached over to the now empty cups, gathering them up. Bruce had gone to put Matt back to bed and they knew that Alfred was waiting in the kitchen. A few minutes later, the older males of the family sat around the counter top.

"Bruce. We have to train him."

He shifted under the look his biological father sent him.

"No."

"You know we have to. He will be scarred for life after this. This is a chance for him to feel like he is performing an atonement of sorts."

He continued his argument. Wincing a little at the force of the stare the look had graduated to.

"No."

Their Dad stood up, enraged.

"Bruce. How do you think I feel? That is my son. I don't want him in here anymore than you do. But he is a Bat. And he felt useless. I should have been there. But no, I wasn't, and you know why? Because we were off-world."

Dad met Bruce's glare calmly (proving to him once again, that Grayson DNA could withstand Wayne intimidation). The father-wolf mode (as he come to dub it) that rose every time he or Terry were in danger (he remembered it holding out against the a Ghul might so long ago, in that courthouse where he became his father's son), was meeting the full force of the Bat-glare, and winning.

"Bruce, we can't protect him forever. But we can give him the skill he needs to help him survive. And protect others."

He looked at his fathers, one by blood the other by heart. Determination setting his jaw, he backed his Dad up. Recalling the photos of the massacre at Terry's school. There was so much blood, innocence they all hoped to protect, lost.

"Bruce, with all due respect, we can't keep him from this any longer. But we can teach him how to stand against the dark."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:-<strong>Remember to review please! Eastonia (yeah I know its not up to usual standards... I might rewrite this one day tell me if I should.). Damian has come a very long way huh? just goes to show how Daddy!Dick can nurture the nature out of some people.


	9. House Rules

**AN:-** I've decided that I have no clue why Damian went from calling Tim, Drake in year 2 to calling Tim, Tim in year 9. And the Little T tick of his. Hmmm…. This calls for a Family!Chapter again (: . This is considerably more light hearted than what I usually write in this series. Still I hope you like it!

**Five Years On AU (The very summarised general version)**

**Year 1: **Comic events occur, all except Bruce's return. Substitute that with Dick, Alfred, Damian and Tim knowing that he's caught in the time stream and trying to help him. Chris Kent steps up as the new Nightwing, brings in a Flamebird. Damian turns 11

**Year 2:** Tim returns to Gotham. They've done everything possible to try and help Bruce. Bruce still stuck in time. He'd have to do this alone now. Towards the end of Year 2 Damian comes clean about the baby in the chamber and calls Dick "Dad" for the first time in _Five Years On: O Captain! My Captain!_, rescue mission staged. Terrance Wayne brought into the family. Damian turns 12.

**Year 3:** Beginning of Year 3, Dick realises that Bruce coming back could take a while, Talia does too. She challenges Dick for the rights to her sons. Dick fights back, custodial battle occurs. Dick wins and Damian and Terry become Grayson-Wayne's in _Five Years On: Between Blood and Heart_

**Year 5: **Terry outs Damian and Dick. Towards the end of the 5th year of Dick as the Bat, Bruce returns. Shenanigans happen. Damian pouts over it in _Five Years On: Fathers and Dads_. Damian turns 15 somewhere. A week after the end of the 5th year, Bruce meets Mar'i in _Five Years On: The Old Stereotype_.

**Year 6: **After an encounter with Bane, Bruce over reacts and bans the operation of Robins in Gotham. Damian and Terry move back in with Dick permanently (they had been splitting time between the Manor and the Penthouse), and Nightwing gains a partner in Rook (Damian) in _Five Years On: Moulting Feathers_.

**Year 9: **Terry's school is attacked and he is traumatize by the fact he couldn't do a thing. Bruce, Dick and Damian agree to train him in _Five Years On: To Stand Against The Dark_.

**Year 10: **Towards the end of the end of this year, Leslie Thompkins bans Bruce from being Batman on account of his weakening heart. Dick becomes Batman… again… in _Five Years On: Mantles_, Damian continues another legacy. Terry turns 11, Damian is almost 20.

**Year 15:** Lex Luthor wins president… again… Terry Grayson-Wayne and Matt Wayne get hit with an amnesia ray that Luthor commissioned to erase and replace memories while forcing the body to shut down in a – no vigilante, no crime campaign. The Bat!Family work to save their own in _Five Years On: Into the Beyond_. Luthor gets thrown out of power when the crime rates remain high.

* * *

><p><strong>House Rules<strong>

* * *

><p><em>"You didn't just take up the Batman did you? You took up Daddy Bats!" - Tim Drake-Wayne, Five Years On: House Rules<em>

* * *

><p>Damian couldn't help it. He grinned wildly at everyone as they walked out the courthouse. He was truly and finally free from a Ghul. Terry was propped up on his Dad's hip, Dad… it felt so good to be accepted.<p>

Loved unconditionally.

He had finally found his place in the world. And he felt invincible. Dad ruffled his hair and told him about a mini celebration they planned for the adoption.

"How did you know we'd win?"

"Expect the best, prepare for the worst."

"T-t."

Maybe he should have done the same. Dad's mini celebration turned out to be a rather large one. What seemed like the whole hero community was there. Including, unfortunately, Drake. So in between the congratulations and whatnot, he and Drake spent the time glaring at one another as Dad worked the room with Terry on his hip.

When the guests left they could finally explode.

"Drake what are you doing here!"

"I have just as much right as you to be here Little Demon!"

"Enough!"

Dick's voice cut through the argument before it could truly start. He looked sternly at Damian then Tim.

"Look Damian, obviously we haven't had the time to do this before. But…"

He sighed in disbelief, 3 years ago, if you had asked him, he would have told you the idea of him becoming a father was preposterous. And he'd have back up that claim with several paternity suits. But he was here now, and it was time to lay some ground rules.

"First of all Damian, you're a big brother. You've gotta set a good example."

He glanced at Tim.

"That goes double for you Tim. Damian can be excused from time to time, he's still a kid – "

" – Hey!"

" – Damian. You are still a minor. Tim, you're an adult. You should know better."

Tim blinked at him, jaw falling down.

"Oh my go – odness…"

Switching the word after another hard look from Dick.

"You didn't just take up the Batman did you? You took up Daddy Bats!"

The glower Dick sent over did nothing to suppress the giggle forming in Tim's throat. Batman was, to Gotham, first and foremost her protector. Batman, to the Clan was first and foremost their father. And it looked like in Bruce's absence, Dick had taken it upon himself to step up to the mantle of Daddy Bats… Interesting…

"Let me repeat myself, are we clear?"

Oh, there was the Bat-glare. Now's the time to run screaming to the hills. In Bruce's absence, Dick seemed to have perfected the Bat-glare. This was not good. He only had one last card up his sleeve…

"Yes sir."

"Don't call me sir."

Alfred came up behind Dick and relieved him of Terry.

"Shall I put him to bed Master Dick?"

Dick smiled at him in thanks.

"Thanks Alfie."

Then the stern expression was back as he turned to them.

"So let me lay the house rules... Again. One, Tim I want you back here every other weekend. Yes, I'm going to force you to bond, and babysit. No buts, You never know when you need the experience with children. Two, Damian, I will accept that you and Tim are different people and that you will be prone to fights every so often. I want you to keep in mind, even with the adoption, you are still brothers. Brothers fight, but at the end of the day they are still brothers. Am I understood?"

Glum nods from the brothers, uncle-nephew duo.

"Three, Tim, you need help, call. We'll be there. Four, Damian, no intercepting his calls and rewiring them. There will be consequences."

Dick relaxed.

"Okay, I'm sure I can think of more ground rules later but for now…"

He stepped forward quickly embracing the younger males.

"I'm glad that we are family… Now come on. I have a game of Cluedo calling our names. You up for it?"

"Oh yes."

Dick twacked Tim upside the head as Damian grinned at the abuse of his older brother.

"OW! What was that for?"

"Language!"

"But I didn't say – "

"You thought it. Five, you two have a baby brother – or nephew I suppose in your case Tim – no foul language. You should be setting a good example."

Damian froze suddenly, then reached out and caught Tim's arm.

"Hey Dra – Tim, did you realise that our family has just got even more messed up?"

Tim's eyes widened.

"Great. You're my legal brother, because of Bruce. But you're also my legal nephew because of Dick…"

Their eyes widened as they stared at Dick. He turned around and shrugged

"Eh. Our family has always been dysfunctional, what's a little more dysfunction?"

He cackled and scooped Damian up onto his back

"Race you back to the Manor Tim!"

"DICK!"

And Alfred watched on through the window, rocking Terry lightly as the brothers, or father and son and uncle, ran towards the Manor, sun setting in the backdrop.

"Oh… If I only had my camera!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN:- <strong>Yup, more lighthearted than usual. Tell me what you think! Eastonia


	10. Crossing Through Dimensions

AN:- I wanted to create a tie in to another weird idea of mine based on TwinEnigma's pic "what is even going on". So… I'm going to go with it. BTW! Today I crossed the 2000 visitor mark! How awesome is that :P.

**Five Years On AU (The very summarised general version)**

**Year 1: **Comic events occur, all except Bruce's return. Substitute that with Dick, Alfred, Damian and Tim knowing that he's caught in the time stream and trying to help him. Chris Kent steps up as the new Nightwing, brings in a Flamebird. Damian turns 11

**Year 2:** Tim returns to Gotham. They've done everything possible to try and help Bruce. Bruce still stuck in time. He'd have to do this alone now. Towards the end of Year 2 Damian comes clean about the baby in the chamber and calls Dick "Dad" for the first time in _Five Years On: O Captain! My Captain!_, rescue mission staged. Terrance Wayne brought into the family. Damian turns 12.

**Year 3:** Beginning of Year 3, Dick realises that Bruce coming back could take a while, Talia does too. She challenges Dick for the rights to her sons. Dick fights back, custodial battle occurs. Dick wins and Damian and Terry become Grayson-Wayne's in _Five Years On: Between Blood and Heart_. Then Dick lays down the house rules in _Five Years On: House Rules_.

**Year 5: **Terry outs Damian and Dick. Towards the end of the 5th year of Dick as the Bat, Bruce returns. Shenanigans happen. Damian pouts over it in _Five Years On: Fathers and Dads_. Damian turns 15 somewhere. A week after the end of the 5th year, Bruce meets Mar'i in _Five Years On: The Old Stereotype_.

**Year 6: **After an encounter with Bane, Bruce over reacts and bans the operation of Robins in Gotham. Damian and Terry move back in with Dick permanently (they had been splitting time between the Manor and the Penthouse), and Nightwing gains a partner in Rook (Damian) in _Five Years On: Moulting Feathers_.

**Year 9: **Terry's school is attacked and he is traumatized by the fact he couldn't do a thing. Bruce, Dick and Damian agree to train him in _Five Years On: To Stand Against The Dark_.

**Year 10: **Towards the end of the end of this year, Leslie Thompkins bans Bruce from being Batman on account of his weakening heart. Dick becomes Batman… again… in _Five Years On: Mantles_, Damian continues another legacy. Terry turns 11, Damian is almost 20.

**Year 15:** Lex Luthor wins president… again… Terry Grayson-Wayne and Matt Wayne get hit with an amnesia ray that Luthor commissioned to erase and replace memories while forcing the body to shut down in a – no vigilante, no crime campaign. The Bat!Family work to save their own in _Five Years On: Into the Beyond_. Luthor gets thrown out of power when the crime rates remain high.

* * *

><p><strong>Crossing Through Dimensions<strong>

* * *

><p>"<em>I was planning on giving you this on your twenty-first birthday, but looks like you're not going to be around, so here it is, early." – Dick Grayson-Wayne, Five Years On: Crossing Through Dimensions<em>

* * *

><p>It has been a year in the blue and black for Damian, it was a year since he started to lead the Titans, and the latest crisis?<p>

This guy.

Called himself Deleter. He claimed that he was trying to improve the Batman by killing off Dick Grayson.

Like his Dad was going to die on his watch. Of course, Deleter wasn't making his job very easy, but still it was very fun. That was, until he started cackling.

Then things got weird.

"Nightwing, do you know why I chose to delete him from your 'verse?"

"Why?"

"Well, I've found two ways of getting rid of him permanently. The first is to directly attack the root Dick Grayson-Wayne. It's simpler, you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because… I don't need to go through the trouble of the other way."

"What is the other way?"

"Find the youngest and most recent incarnation of him."

Damian's eyes widened behind the Nightwing mask. He lunged forward, while pressing a button that would open communications with the Cowl.

"Dad, stay out of here."

"Dami, let the League help!"

"No! This is Titans business, besides, YOU'RE the target!"

"I was the Target."

"Not the time for joking Dad!"

"What? It's true!"

"He's right you know 'Wing."

"Shut up RR."

"Why did you give him that suit anyway Bats?"

"Red Robin, concentrate."

Damian turned his attention back to the fight.

"Why do you want to kill him anyway?"

The maniacal grin on the otherwise blank face of the villain grew

"Didn't you know?"

"No him, no Robins. No Robins, the Bat wouldn't hold back. Therefore, to improve the Bat, get rid of the man who started it all."

"That's not true! There will always be a partner. We may not have been called Robin, but we still would have been around!"

"That unfortunately for you, is not true."

They started to circle each other as Deleter continued talking

"You see Nightwing, your Dad proved that the Bat could work with a partner (even if he did his best work alone) – "

"The Bat is my father."

"Ah. He is."

"I meant Richard John Grayson-Wayne when I said that." Damian spat at him.

"I meant Bruce Wayne when I said that." Deleter mimicked.

The ground shook and then suddenly the Justice League poured out of the Earth. Damian's eyes widened. The Batman emerged from the darkness and fought his way to him.

"Dad! NO!"

Batman ducked under the flying blade Deleter sent his way.

"I told you, you need League help!"

"No, you're the target of this assassin!"

"So? We'll deal with it together Dami. Like always."

"Plus me!"

Damian couldn't help but grin as a red blur somersaulted over a Deleter Troop member and downed him with a single kick.

"Terry!"

"No names in the field remember 'Wing?"

"Robin, take the twenty over there then get the Titans closer in. Nightwing, you're with me."

Damian nodded as the two Bats rushed the Deleter. At the last moment he pushed the Bat out of the way and called out

"Titans! Protect the Bat! He's the target!"

Almost immediately, Dick found himself in the centre of a bubble created out of superheroes.

"Nightwing!"

"We can't afford to lose you Bat!"

Damian focused back on the fight. Whispering softly,

"I can't afford to lose my Dad…"

Suddenly something on the Deleter pinged.

"Maybe this version is too much trouble. After all, it is easier to kill off a hero towards the first five years of his career than any other time…"

Damian's eyes widened in horror.

"To Earth-16 I go!"

The Deleter vanished out of sight. Damian shook his head in disbelief.

"No, this can't be happening. It cannot be happening…"

* * *

><p>"Damian. Dami. Little D. SON! SNAP OUT OF IT!"<p>

Damain found himself in that Bat-cave, unsure of how he got there. Mar'i and Robin flanked an uncowled Batman on either side. Concern evident on their faces. He looked at all of them slowly before looking back at his Dad.

"Did we get him?"

Dick shook his head.

"No."

"We have to stop him!"

"What?"

"He's going to kill you off."

"Dami, I'm still here."

"No. Two ways. Kill you here, or kill the most recent version of you."

Damian pushed himself up from where he was seated.

"Tim, Bruce. I need a cross-dimensional device. And a disrupter."

"Why?"

"I'm going after him. And I'm going to stop him. Dad you can't go. Gotham needs you too much. But me? That guy's going to pay for threatening my Dad!"

He grabbed the device and disrupter and prepared to leave when Dick stopped him

"Wait, if you're going to do this… here."

Dick slipped off something from inside his shirt. Four rings glistened on it. The first Damian recognised, it was the ring of the eldest son of the Wayne legacy. Bruce gave his Dad that on his twenty-first birthday. The second and third he didn't recognise. The fourth…

"I was planning on giving you this on your twenty-first birthday, but looks like you're not going to be around, so here it is, early."

Damian felt it being pressed into his palm, opening his palm he found a simple silver ring sitting in it. A stylised G was inscribed in the inside of the ring. He stared up at his Dad in shock.

"This…"

"That's what survived the Holocaust from my birth family. It's passed down like this one – "

Dick briefly gestured to the ornate sapphire ring

" – from father to eldest son on their twenty-first birthdays. I give you any trouble, that should shut me up."

He held Damian by his shoulders

"Now, go get him!"

Damian turned to the rest of his family, tapping his heart briefly when his eyes rested on Mar'i. He smiled, and vanished.

Dick smiled a rueful smile

"Do me proud, my son."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:-<strong>So... could you recognise any concepts I borrowed here? If you want to read more of this storyline, it will be expanded into a full story over at the Young Justice Cartoons section. So, see you over there! Or wait for the next installment of Five Years On if you don't want to :P.

Eastonia


	11. SAVE DICK GRAYSON and Notice

Note from Eastonia,

I promised myself I would not come back here till the things I previously stated were rectified. I have to go back on my word for one reason.

Dick Grayson is in danger.

If you love a certain Boy Wonder and want to prevent something like his demise from happening (or for more details) please go over to  
>Change. org and search for "Save Dick Grayson". This is on a timeline people. He has only until April (so really, mid-March). Alternatively contact me for the link.<p>

The link is (remove spaces please!)

change en-GB/petitions/dc-comics-save-d i c k-grayson-2

Also, I'm slowly getting back on my feet (in terms of writing stories) after my boycott.

From now on I'll be Eastonia over at AO3 - don't really like it (format s a little confusing for me) but I feel it is necessary. My previous stories are undergoing a revamp. There will be minor changes - just to improve flow and grammar and things like that.

But to let you know the order of revamp...

Five Years On AU (and it's other related stuff) fics first.

Then The Shift!Verse fics.

Then The Keeper's fics.

Thanks for following me.

This is Eastonia signing off.


	12. Challenge

DICK GRAYSON BIRTH MONTH CHALLENGE. (Rules Updated!)

Hi there.

My, well penname I suppose, is Eastonia.

I'm helping to campaign for the SAVE DICK GRAYSON petition. So I've thought up of this.

Dick Grayson's birth month is March, so from tomorrow onwards I challenge you to do one of two things. Use the writing prompts below (there are 31 in all) to write something every day. Or you could try and write a chaptered fic of at least 10,000 words in that time.

So the rules?

Must:-

1. Be Dick Grayson centric.

2. Be gen. (Or with very minor focus on pairings.)

3. Declare that you are taking part in said challenge in your summary (How are we supposed to find your story otherwise?)

What is allowed?

Well, you are allowed to use previous fics as a launch base. This is provided:-

1. You declare to a member of the community staff how many reviews were already present in the beginning.

2. You declare what chapter your challenge work begins at.

And... Actually, that's it.

On the other hand, I will be needing staff to help me out with the community I'll be establishing and to trail through the different Fandoms to place it there (PM me if you would like to do this!). I will also need readers to vote – via review system. The more reviews a story has, the closer the story gets to becoming the winner of a category (TBA).

Any artists can choose to do the challenge in another way - fanart. Please make use of the prompts below for inspiration for a minimum of 4 pieces. (Please PM the staff members of the community your image.)

The winners (with permission) stories/ fanart will be posted onto the SAVE DICK GRAYSON Facebook page.

So without further ado the prompts are (in chronological order for the days of March):-

1. Insomniac.

2. A stolen ring.

3. Spider

4. Dyspnoea (AKA shortness of breath.)

5. Tachycardia (AKA an unusually fast heartbeat.)

6. Firefly.

7. Doppelganger.

8. Riddle.

9. Teenager.

10. Matchstick.

11. Force.

12. Prologue.

13. Epilogue.

14. Guitar.

15. Middle.

16. Climax.

17. Talons.

18. The Round Table.

19. Sword.

20. Magic.

21. Birthday! (Basically – a write whatever you want day. It _is_ the original Robin's birthday.)

22. Prodigal.

23. Runs in the family.

24. Wanderlust.

25. Wildcard.

26. To lead.

27. Carpe diem.

28. Spot of wax.

29. Origins.

30. Resolutions.

31. Safe and sound.

Have fun! And remember to mention that you are undertaking the challenge (we do need to find your fic after all)! BTW please show your support (they kinda want to kill Dick off, again...) and sign the petition (remove the commas)  
>https,:,,/,www,.,change,.,org,/,en-GB,/,petitions,/,dc-comics-save-d,i,c,k-grayson-2

Cheers,

Eastonia.


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